John F Healy
Biographic Data
| ID | 1211763 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John F Healy |
| GIVEN NAMES | John F |
| FAMILY NAME | Healy |
| SIGNATURE | HEALY J F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Royal Holloway University of London |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 43 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 29 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1978 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Pliny on Mineralogy and Metals
Pliny the Elder, in the prefaced( 1 ) to his Natural History, explains that the subject of his study, or ‘enquiry’ (historia)( 2 ) is “a barren one, the world of nature (rerum naturae) that is life”. His treatment of this theme, however, differs markedly from that of Lucretius in the De Rerum Natura( 3 ): fundamentally it is more scientific than philosophical. Pliny’s specific aim, to save the science of the past from the forgetful indifference o…
Abbreviations
The Natural History and Technical Literature
Schilling, assessing the place of Pliny’s Natural History in technical literature,1 states, “La Naturalis Historia... n’est certainement pas la premiere oeuvre latine qui traite de sujets techniques et “scientifiques”, mais elle constitue sans doute 1’ouvrage le plus representatif.’
Pliny’s Life and Career
Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus, was born in late AD 23, or early 24, during the principate of Tiberius, a period of great political unrest, mutiny within the legions, and rivalries in the struggle for imperial power.
Title Pages
Language and Style
A discussion of Pliny’s use of language and of his style1 may seem an unwarranted intrusion in a review of his contribution to early imperial science and technology. However, the problems that Pliny, like Lucretius and others, encountered because of the paucity of technical terms in Latin, and the style in which he presents his subject matter, have a critical bearing on the content and character of the Natural History. The importance also of nome…
Pliny and the Environment
It has often been claimed—but more often implied—that Pliny’s moral diatribe against luxury is the result of an uncontrolled, spontaneous outburst, reflecting little more than the declamations against luxury he had learnt in the Schools.
The Natural History
In Greece, the Sophists had been the first to claim to impart to their pupils such knowledge as they might need in daily life.1 Hippias of Elis (Pl. Hp. mi. 368b ff.) mastered all the subjects of instruction later referred to by Aristotle (Pol. 1337b15) as the branches of knowledge necessary for a freeman: these included astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, music, and grammar. Quintilian (Inst. 1. 10. 1) writes: ‘orbis ille doctrinae
Pliny’s Sources
Although Pliny records information obtained1 while on active service in Germany, and as procurator in Spain2 (and, probably, North Africa3), most of the content of the Natural History is derived from secondary sources, and includes accounts of countries and peoples by geographers, historians, scholars, encyclopaedists, writers on special topics, local people, Roman commanders in the field (reports and commentarii), provincial governors, equites, …
Gems and Precious Stones
In the final book of the Natural History (37) Pliny discusses precious stones, or gems.1 Here (37. 1), Nature’s grandeur is gathered together within the narrowest limits. ...very many people find that a single gemstone alone is enough to provide them with a supreme and perfect aesthetic experience of the wonder of Nature.’ (‘in artum coacta rerum naturae maiestas. ... ut plerisque ad summam absolutamque naturae rerum con- templationem satis sit u…
Science in the Vatural History
A recently published diagram, illustrating ‘Field of Research’ classifications,1 provides a useful framework within which to examine Pliny’s contribution to the Natural Sciences (as well as to the Social Sciences and the Humanities).
Metals
A metal possesses all, or many, of the following properties: it is solid (except for mercury)1 at ordinary temperatures, opaque, a good reflector of light when polished, and a good, or fairly good, conductor of heat. When melted it solidifies as a compact mass of crystals generally invisible to the eye but clearly visible in metallographic analyses.
Pliny the writer
The deterioration in the political situation during the first century AD inevitably had far-reaching consequences on the content and character of the literature of the period. This resulted from opposition to imperial rule, the basis of which apparently lay in a sentimentalized view of the Republic, and in a concept less philosophical than political, namely that government should be in the hands of the best men, or best man, which, of course, mea…
The Natural History in the Middle Ages and After
The Natural History became an influential book in the all- embracing field of natural science from the moment of its publication c. AD 77. Already cited, epitomized, and even plagiarized by late Roman and patristic authors, this survey of scientific knowledge was to survive the breakdown of Roman political and educational institutions. Although the transmission of such a long, detailed, and specialized text presented great problems, it was too va…
Dedication
Chemistry
Chemistry,1 as a closely defined area of study, dates from the eighteenth-century fashion for the ordering of knowledge.2 * It is the branch of physical science concerned with the composition, properties, and reactions of substances, including the accompanying energy changes. Analysis, which plays a major role in chemistry, involves the examination of substances of unknown composition in order to determine their composition.
Technology
Some advances in technology in the ancient world were attributed to accidental discoveries, among them the basic metallurgical processes. Lucretius, in a well-known passage (DRN 5. 1255—64), ascribes the rise of civilization to its acquisition of the technology needed for smelting and casting of metals.1 Similarly Pliny (36. 191 ff.) records the traditional account of the origin of glass.2
Mirabilia
Words commonly used to categorize wonders, curiosities, monstrosities, extravagant fictions, the seemingly inexplicable, and things beyond normal, everyday experience include mirabilia, miracula, prodigia, and portenta (explained as ‘praeter naturam hominum pecudumque’).1 Similarly, mirum and mirabilis are applied to the unusual. Such mirabilia are to be found in the shadowy realms of ‘sub-science’.
Minerals as Pigments
Pliny (35. 29 ff.) gives a brief account of minerals used as pigments by artists. However, his claim that painting began with single colours (‘monochromata’) is not borne out by the extant evidence.
Pliny and Research
Aristotle, in his On Parts of Animals, sets out some of his prerequisites for research. Although his observations refer to zoology, they also involve general principles in the context of which it is useful to examine Pliny’s attitude to research. He writes (PA 639a): ‘There are, as it seems, two ways in which a person may be competent in respect of any study or investigation, whether it be a noble one, or humble: he may either have what can be ca…
Earth Sciences
Pliny devotes the major part of books 33—7 to minerals (including ore-minerals), mineral earths, types of common stone, and gemstones. In addition there are many random references to these throughout the Natural History.
Science in Antiquity
Lloyd,1 in his work on early Greek science, somewhat illogic- ally, points out that there is no exact equivalent to our modern definition of the term ‘science’, although Western science may still be said to originate with the Greeks. Greenaway2 makes a similar point, although admitting that Pliny’s world did recognize that the material substances which we must use are susceptible of consistent and rational examination for fitness of purpose and t…
Minerals
In this chapter the minerals treated, or referred to, by Pliny are arranged in alphabetical order. adamas The term adamas has a long pedigree, being indiscriminately used in the ancient world to describe any unusually hard substance, whether mineral, or metal—for example, iron, corundum, lodestone, and diamonds.
Physics
Physics is the branch of science concerned with the properties of matter and energy and the relationships between them. It is based on mathematics and, traditionally, includes optics, electricity, magnetism, acoustics, heat, and mechanics.
Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology
The Elder Pliny's Natural History is essentially a work of reference providing a wide-ranging account of human mores and achievement in the arts and sciences in the first century AD. It influenced the content and character of subsequent technical literature, but errors in transmission of the manuscripts led to undeserved criticism from the time of Niccolo Leoniceno, the late fifteenth-century Italian humanist. Pliny's work is here re-examined for…
Pliny the Elder on Science and Technology
The Elder Pliny's Natural History is essentially a work of reference providing a wide-ranging account of human mores and achievement in the arts and sciences in the first century AD. It influenced the content and character of subsequent technical literature, but errors in transmission of the manuscripts led to undeserved criticism from the time of Niccolo Leoniceno, the late fifteenth-century Italian humanist. Pliny's work is here re-examined for…
Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder and Ancient Mineralogy
In the ancient world the dividing line between the Arts and the Sciences was not so rigidly drawn as in recenl times. Poets and prose authors alike frequently crossed the boundaries in their literary works. Notable Greek interdisciplinary writers include Hesiod, Aristotle and Theophrastus and, among the Romans, Lucretius, Virgil and Pliny the Elder are the best known. Thus Aristotle wrote the Poetics on the nature of drama and related topics and,…
Mining and metallurgy in the Greek and Roman world
Pliny the Elder and Ancient Mineralogy
In the ancient world the dividing line between the Arts and the Sciences was not so rigidly drawn as in recenl times. Poets and prose authors alike frequently crossed the boundaries in their literary works. Notable Greek interdisciplinary writers include Hesiod, Aristotle and Theophrastus and, among the Romans, Lucretius, Virgil and Pliny the Elder are the best known. Thus Aristotle wrote the Poetics on the nature of drama and related topics and,…
Pliny on Metals and Coinage - Hubert Zehnacker
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Pliny the Elder
Abbreviations
The Natural History and Technical Literature
Schilling, assessing the place of Pliny’s Natural History in technical literature,1 states, “La Naturalis Historia... n’est certainement pas la premiere oeuvre latine qui traite de sujets techniques et “scientifiques”, mais elle constitue sans doute 1’ouvrage le plus representatif.’
Pliny’s Life and Career
Pliny the Elder, Gaius Plinius Secundus, was born in late AD 23, or early 24, during the principate of Tiberius, a period of great political unrest, mutiny within the legions, and rivalries in the struggle for imperial power.
Title Pages
Language and Style
A discussion of Pliny’s use of language and of his style1 may seem an unwarranted intrusion in a review of his contribution to early imperial science and technology. However, the problems that Pliny, like Lucretius and others, encountered because of the paucity of technical terms in Latin, and the style in which he presents his subject matter, have a critical bearing on the content and character of the Natural History. The importance also of nome…
Pliny and the Environment
It has often been claimed—but more often implied—that Pliny’s moral diatribe against luxury is the result of an uncontrolled, spontaneous outburst, reflecting little more than the declamations against luxury he had learnt in the Schools.
The Natural History
In Greece, the Sophists had been the first to claim to impart to their pupils such knowledge as they might need in daily life.1 Hippias of Elis (Pl. Hp. mi. 368b ff.) mastered all the subjects of instruction later referred to by Aristotle (Pol. 1337b15) as the branches of knowledge necessary for a freeman: these included astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, music, and grammar. Quintilian (Inst. 1. 10. 1) writes: ‘orbis ille doctrinae
Pliny’s Sources
Although Pliny records information obtained1 while on active service in Germany, and as procurator in Spain2 (and, probably, North Africa3), most of the content of the Natural History is derived from secondary sources, and includes accounts of countries and peoples by geographers, historians, scholars, encyclopaedists, writers on special topics, local people, Roman commanders in the field (reports and commentarii), provincial governors, equites, …
Gems and Precious Stones
In the final book of the Natural History (37) Pliny discusses precious stones, or gems.1 Here (37. 1), Nature’s grandeur is gathered together within the narrowest limits. ...very many people find that a single gemstone alone is enough to provide them with a supreme and perfect aesthetic experience of the wonder of Nature.’ (‘in artum coacta rerum naturae maiestas. ... ut plerisque ad summam absolutamque naturae rerum con- templationem satis sit u…
Science in the Vatural History
A recently published diagram, illustrating ‘Field of Research’ classifications,1 provides a useful framework within which to examine Pliny’s contribution to the Natural Sciences (as well as to the Social Sciences and the Humanities).
Metals
A metal possesses all, or many, of the following properties: it is solid (except for mercury)1 at ordinary temperatures, opaque, a good reflector of light when polished, and a good, or fairly good, conductor of heat. When melted it solidifies as a compact mass of crystals generally invisible to the eye but clearly visible in metallographic analyses.
Pliny the writer
The deterioration in the political situation during the first century AD inevitably had far-reaching consequences on the content and character of the literature of the period. This resulted from opposition to imperial rule, the basis of which apparently lay in a sentimentalized view of the Republic, and in a concept less philosophical than political, namely that government should be in the hands of the best men, or best man, which, of course, mea…
The Natural History in the Middle Ages and After
The Natural History became an influential book in the all- embracing field of natural science from the moment of its publication c. AD 77. Already cited, epitomized, and even plagiarized by late Roman and patristic authors, this survey of scientific knowledge was to survive the breakdown of Roman political and educational institutions. Although the transmission of such a long, detailed, and specialized text presented great problems, it was too va…
Dedication
Chemistry
Chemistry,1 as a closely defined area of study, dates from the eighteenth-century fashion for the ordering of knowledge.2 * It is the branch of physical science concerned with the composition, properties, and reactions of substances, including the accompanying energy changes. Analysis, which plays a major role in chemistry, involves the examination of substances of unknown composition in order to determine their composition.
Technology
Some advances in technology in the ancient world were attributed to accidental discoveries, among them the basic metallurgical processes. Lucretius, in a well-known passage (DRN 5. 1255—64), ascribes the rise of civilization to its acquisition of the technology needed for smelting and casting of metals.1 Similarly Pliny (36. 191 ff.) records the traditional account of the origin of glass.2
Mirabilia
Words commonly used to categorize wonders, curiosities, monstrosities, extravagant fictions, the seemingly inexplicable, and things beyond normal, everyday experience include mirabilia, miracula, prodigia, and portenta (explained as ‘praeter naturam hominum pecudumque’).1 Similarly, mirum and mirabilis are applied to the unusual. Such mirabilia are to be found in the shadowy realms of ‘sub-science’.
Minerals as Pigments
Pliny (35. 29 ff.) gives a brief account of minerals used as pigments by artists. However, his claim that painting began with single colours (‘monochromata’) is not borne out by the extant evidence.
Pliny and Research
Aristotle, in his On Parts of Animals, sets out some of his prerequisites for research. Although his observations refer to zoology, they also involve general principles in the context of which it is useful to examine Pliny’s attitude to research. He writes (PA 639a): ‘There are, as it seems, two ways in which a person may be competent in respect of any study or investigation, whether it be a noble one, or humble: he may either have what can be ca…
Earth Sciences
Pliny devotes the major part of books 33—7 to minerals (including ore-minerals), mineral earths, types of common stone, and gemstones. In addition there are many random references to these throughout the Natural History.
Science in Antiquity
Lloyd,1 in his work on early Greek science, somewhat illogic- ally, points out that there is no exact equivalent to our modern definition of the term ‘science’, although Western science may still be said to originate with the Greeks. Greenaway2 makes a similar point, although admitting that Pliny’s world did recognize that the material substances which we must use are susceptible of consistent and rational examination for fitness of purpose and t…
History (16 works) · Art (15 works) · Classical Antiquity Studies (13 works) · Historical and Literary Studies (13 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · Literature (10 works) · Classical Philosophy and Thought (8 works) · Archaeology (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods (7 works)